D-Day

Thursday, Oct 7th we checked in the hospital at 7 am. They got Jed prepped and all ready and the nerves were pretty strong. Jed was mostly nervous for the After part but I told him not to worry- once the surgerys over, we can move on from this and just rest. They took him in at 11:40. I went to the car and got a good cry out and went back into the waiting room with both of our parents and family. It was only a 3 hour surgery and they had us go up to the ICU for news. The surgeon said that the surgery had gone very well and that the tumor was the size of a large egg! He said it didnt look to be cancerous and was happy with the surgery. They then took me back to see Jed. You always forget that everyone looks really bad after they've just had surgery. His face was really pasty yellow and he had an oxygen mask on still. He was awake and seemed to be really upset, and was sweating really bad. He asked me what went wrong and what was happening to him. I told him that the surgery had gone really good and not to worry and that everything was ok. He was panicking and having a really hard time breathing and kept telling me that something was wrong, that he felt like something was really not right. I hummed him some hymns to help calm him and he started to cry out loud. I wasn't prepared for this and was wondering myself what was going on. I later found out that the part where his tumor was removed controls your emotions and that its very common for patients to be very emotional after a brain surgery. He was also very drugged and was saying some pretty crazy things. Everything he said he was crying out loud while he said it. Some of them were funny and some of them kind of made me feel kind of worried but here are some of the things he said:
"Do you think President Monson will come visit me?"
"Am I holding Jesus's hand?"
"Is Jesus in the room? And aunt Chris and Grandad?" (that actually really scared me)
"I wish I could win the lottery!"
"I LOVE my job! I want to help people. There's so many bad people out there, I just want catch them all"
"I haven't told any secrets have I?"
(to the nurses) "You guys are going to be so blessed for what you do. You help people!
Another funny thing is that he called me Melisa when I first came in and for the rest of the time pretty much. Which is pretty funny cause he doesn't usually call me that even though it is my name, its just always been Missy.

He hated the catheder and was also in a lot of pain. The rest of the day in the ICU was pretty rough. He had some visitors and they were probably alarmed by Jed's appearance. His eyes were kind of dazed. Kind of like how a person who is blind would look at you, his mouth was kind of always a little open, and his left side of his face was pretty droopy. He definately wasn't looking like my Jed. He would cry when anyone would come in the room and wouldn't let me out of his sight. The surgeon came in checked on Jed. He had him wiggle his toes and only his right foot moved. Then he had him lift up his arms and only the right one went up. We were both wondering what was going on but the doc said he was suprised he wasn't moving but that he should be fine by tomorrow. So Jed could feel his left side but could not move it at all. They made us leave for shift change but came out and got me out of the waiting room because Jed was having a panic attack after I left. I stayed with Jed that night and It was one of the longest nights of my life. Jed couldn't sleep and had a lot of anxiety. He was always asking me to caress his face, rub his feet or his hands or anything else that would calm him. Not a fun day.

The Day Before

The day before the surgery my family and Jed's family went to a great session at the temple. It was the best one I've ever been to and I felt the spirit so strong. After the session, we met at a church to give Jed a priesthood blessing. Before we began my Grandpa gave a beautiful prayer and Jed said a couple words to everyone. He told us he'd had a very special experience in the temple and told me once more that everthing was going to be alright. Jed's brother Jason gave him the blessing and I don't know if there was a dry eye in the room. It was very comforting and Jed was promised that we would be ok and the surgeon would get the whole tumor out and that the surgery would go very well. I felt peace that everyting was going to be alright. We then went to Village Inn since it was the only place open and had a great dinner with all of Jed's family.

The News

On Sept. 15th we had our appt with Dr Reichman, the neurosurgeon. We felt so blessed to be able to be referred to him and had heard incredible things about him. He had perfomed more brain surgerys than all the surgeons in Utah combined. He showed us the film of Jed's MRI results and told us that it looked like a low grade tumor., and that it was causing the seizures. We weren't completely shocked because we knew that something was there and couldn't figure out what else it could be. We were pleased that it looked to be a low grade one and not cancerous and that it was in a pretty good spot to operate. The Dr said it was in a quiet area and on the top so it should be a pretty simple surgery with just a few days in the hospital and a couple weeks to just rest. He scheduled Jed to have surgery in 3 weeks, Nov 7th. So although we had just been told that Jed had a brain tumor, and that he was going to need brain surgery, we felt lucky that it wasn't worse, and walked out feeling blessed. (and extremely scared ha ha!)

"Thy Faith Shall Make Thee Whole"

On September 6th, we were at a family reunion in Pinto, Utah (near Enterprise) when Jed had his 3rd and by far, scariest seizure. It was a Sunday, and we were having our own little testimony meeting out on the lawn at the reunion. This particular meeting was special to us because Jed and I were really feeling really uneasy about the future, but the things that people said in their testimonies really helped us feel peace and we felt God's love for us so much. I bore mine and Jed got up after me. I think it was only his 2nd time since we've been married bearing his testimony at the reunion so I think he was extra nervous, but he bore the most beautiful testimony and the spirit was so strong. He told me that he was going to be ok, and talked about God's love for us. He paused, and then before he ended, told the men to always honor the priesthood and be worthy to hold it, because you never know when your going to need to heal someone. He closed and the sat down next to me. I was telling him what a good job he did, when I noticed that something was not right. His eyes were rolling to the back of his head, his jaw was flexing forward, and he was started to slightly shake. Although I'd never seen one, I knew immediately he was having a seizure. I started saying his name louder and louder and my family was sitting by us and quickly took him and laid him on his side. Before they laid him down the seizure was really getting intense and I will never forget his face and how bad it scared me. They layed Jed on his side and at that point he had completely stopped breathing and was starting to turn dark blue. I was immediately being held and hugged by my sisters, cousins, and Grandma and Mom as I realized I was crying hysterically and that I wasnt the only one. I could see the panic in their eyes of the people surrounding him. My uncle Ken who has worked in the ER for years said he's seen many seizures but never one that scary where he himself thought that Jed might not make it if he didn't breathe soon. The priesthood holders immediately surrounded him, laid their hands upon him and my uncle Ken, who is also a stake president, commanded Jed to breath. He immediately breathed. I was able to go to him once the seizure had stopped and I Jed held him and cried. Although it was THE scariest moment of my whole life, where I had thought for a few moments that I just lost my husband, it was an amazing experience to see someone's faith in the priesthood make them whole. Jed is an incredible guy and I admire his faith so much.

August 9th "Officer Down"

On August 9th, a Thursday, Jed had just finished his last day at his work at School Improvement Network, and was at the police Acadamy doing a scenario when he suddenly went into a seizure. I was home and didn't hear my phone ring but my mom had been contacted, so she came over and told me that Jed had had a seizure and that he was at the hospital. At first I didn't believe her, but went to the hospital and was able to be with Jed in the ER. The officers at the police academy said it was for sure a seizure and luckily knew what to do. We at that point, were scared and confused. Was this a result of the boating accident? Or is this what caused the boating accident? We were referred to a neurologist and an MRI was ordered along with an EEG. During the middle of all this, Jed started his dream career with the Bureau and with a huge miracle had his insurance with them start immediately. What a huge blessing that was. The EEG came back normal but the MRI showed that there was something in the front right frontal lobe of his brain and we were referred to meet with a neurosurgeon, Dr, Reichman, about what it could be on Sept 15th. So we just had to wait...

Sorry I didn't get it done yesterday but it will get done by today!

July 8th- Out of the "Blue"

So it's been over a year since we wrote in our blog, but we thought this would be a good time to resurrect it so we can keep everyone up to date.
On July 8th Jed went boating for a work activity. He was then going to drive to St George after to test with the St George Police Acadamy. At about 5 PM, I got an unexpected phone call from a paramedic (something I've always been afraid of getting). He told me that he had Jed in the ambulance and that he had a water skiing accident but that he was ok. They took him to Utah Valley Regional Hospital and he had to spend the night because he had aspirated water. He was knee boarding and went down and when the boat turned around to get him, he was lying face down in the water shaking. His boss Nick and his coworker Johnny Harlene (BYU) jumped in and got him out. They thought he was acting really weird when he came to, but thought he must have hit his head hard. So it was really scary but we were just grateful that Jed was ok and didn't think anything more of it.